Graves Build Guide by

[13.22] EUW CHALL | How to DOMINATE the Jungle as Graves

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Graves Build Guide By Updated on

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Runes: Runes

Sorcery

Phase Rush

Nimbus Cloak

Absolute Focus

Waterwalking

Precision

Triumph

Legend: Alacrity

Bonus:

+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor

Spells:

Summoners

Flash

Smite

Items

Starter Items

Mythic core (Pick 1)

Eclipse build

Shieldbow build

Galeforce build

Ability Order Skill Sequence

Graves Passive Ability

Threats & Synergies

Threats

Synergies

Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny

Show All

None Low Ok Strong Ideal

Extreme Threats

Ideal Synergies

Synergies

Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Table of Contents

Introduction

About Me
Why Graves
Pros & Cons

Runes & Items

Runes
Items
Summoner Spells

Gameplay

Abilities
Jungle Pathing
Teamfighting & Lategame

About Me

Hello my name is Exos! I have been a otp for the past 2 seasons now. I have reached Challenger on EUNE, Master on EUW with a 82% winrate and Grandmaster with a 70% winrate. Currently I'm pushing my way up to Challenger on EUW too! Has become my second pick over time, is a monster in the right hands and can carry games with his very effective kit in SoloQ. I think my success comes from eating so many kiwis all day.

I regularly stream my gameplay on Twitch and upload vods to my Youtube channel. Feel free to check me out. The words are clickable :)

Why Graves

Abilities

Graves - The Outlaw
Skirmisher, Jungler

Origin: Bilgewater

Speciality: Dueling, farming, counter jungling.
Why should you play this magnificent champion? is an incredibly strong pick in the current meta. excels at farming and dueling when he completed his first item and onwards. When falls behind he can farm it back up and scale very hard into the game. When he is ahead, can counter jungle the enemy and potentially even solo kill the enemy jungler in their jungle. has a variation in build path which allows you to play as an assassin or as a bruiser. Both builds are strong and scale great into the game.

Pros & Cons

PROS

+ Deals a lot of damage.
+ Scales hard into the game
+ Great at counter jungling when ahead
+ Can be built as a bruiser and assass***in
+ Skills push monsters back, resulting in healthy clear
+ Insane duel potential with E armor stack + smite
+ Favoured in current meta (almost) always pickable.

All in all, Is a great champion in the current meta. 's strenghts lay in dueling and farming up in the jungle. Counterjungling makes a real monster which scales into the late game.

CONS

- No hard CC in kit
- Can be kited by long range comps
- Basic attacks can be blocked by minions/tower
- If not allowed to farm, can have trouble scaling
- Need to pay attention to the E stacks or they dissapear.
- Different auto attack mechanic, harder to master

Just like any other champion, has his weaknesses. However, his strenghts heavily outweigh his weaknesses. When mastered and know how to play around his weaknesses will scale very hard into the game and will get you a lot of elo.

Runes

SORCERY

This sorcery page shows the most efficient rune page for . 's main keystone should always be . This rune offers insane mobility that can be utilized offensively and defensively. Chase down your targets or escape from potential threats.

Grabbing nimbus cloak is the most optimal option right now in the sorcery tree. Not taking it means you lose out on a lot of value. The other possible option versus champions like is

In the 3rd row of runes there can be a selection between 3 decent runes. Out of these three runes is the to go rune for . offers you some adaptive stats when you are above 70% health. Most of the time will easily be above 70% health and if not, the lifesteal from jungle item and/or death's dance will make sure you regain the missing health.

In the last row you should always want to take in order to get around the map faster and to duel in the river. offers great utility and mobility when skirmishing inside the river. The adaptive damage and movement speed help you win fights you might have lost and allow you to escape with a higher chance of success. It also increases scuttle clear speed. As alternative, can be picked to increase late game scaling.

For the second tree I advise looking at the runes at the top of the guide. These runes are and . makes sure your auto attacks come out faster. is very simple but good. 25G extra per takedown and 12% of missing health per takedown. This rune is a lifesaver and will safe u many times. An alternative to is in heavy CC compositions. You always want to run attack speed + adaptive + armor for the small runes. Your attack speed is important in the early clear because most of your damage comes from basic attacks.

Items

[

Gustwalker Hatchling
The is a good choice for . This smite upgrade enables to signifcantly speed up his clear and travel time on the map. This combined with the fact is a very strong invader opens up for many fast tempo plays where you have lots of time to invade. because you can travel fast your invades can catch the enemy off guard.

Mythics

There are currently three good mythics for to choose from.

The first one I'll adress is . This mythic shines against shredding the more tankier team compositions as the unique passive scales on %hp from the enemies. On top of that, the item gives 4% armor penetration per item finished. benefits a lot from 's passive. The bonus movement speed and shield allow to put himself into better positioning and tank more hits.

Another great mythic for is the . This item makes more tankier upon every item completion as it grants 50 health and 5 AD per item. The unique passive on this item is great. It is like the old . Upon reaching 30% hp you will be granted a shield depending on your level. When the shield activates this item will give you an additional 15% lifesteal for 8 seconds on top of the lifesteal the item already has. This allows u to survive assassins such as jumping on you by outhealing all their damage with a few attacks.

Lastly, is another great mythic for and is being played more and more recently. allows you to position closer to the enemy to get in the right range versus those pesky mobile champions such as Lillia and Ekko. The unique active on the item allows for bursting down targets very efficiently. Since it deals magic damage, it's great to have some mixed damage. The unique mythic passive gives a bit of movement speed which is always nice to reposition, outrun or chase after your enemies.

- Items -

Items explained

Time to explain the items other than the mythics.

Starting with . This item will be build almost always after your mythic item choice. It synergizes with all of the three choices because the item consists of Lethality and crit chance. This item also executes targets below 5%hp and grants a little extra 25g. This is nice for your ultimate and for snowballing with the extra bit of damage and gold. Allowing you to kill people faster than you would have otherwise.

The is often built third or could even be possibly build second. Since the changes to this item in S11 where it now grants crit chance and lifesteal it became an incredibly good item for . It keeps you healthy and allows you to leave the jungle with a big shield before going into teamfights. If you chose to go or and built second, then with you will have 60% crit chance and practically a monster already.

An option is the . You can build this item right after in order to maximize your crit damage by another extra 35% whilst having 80% crit. This item will make you oneshot squishy champions like crazy. This item is very offensive and I would pretty much only advise picking it up when you are not in the need of defensive items because youre either so far ahead or the enemy is no threat.

The is a great item to pump the attack speed numbers up. When the unique passive is stacked you will almost shoot both your 2 shots instant and the reload speed is lowered. This in combination with healing items such as allow you to have a constant source of lifesteal healing without having to wait a lot on the shots.

The speaks for it self. Great defensive item allowing you to revive. Apart from the unique passive it has armor on its stats which is great when facing AD damage sources.

is a great item. You only build this when the enemy heals a lot. Champions like and for example. If the enemy is building multiple lifesteal items it is a good idea to pick up to lower their healing outputs. The crit synergizes nicely with your other items. It can built in place of the or the

The is another great item on . This item is usually only build vs comps that rush a lot of armor. Due to its great synergy with the rest of the build because of the crit it offers it can be built insteadv of and just like its counterpart .

The is only built versus very heavy AP compositions that burst. Usually your healing should be enough to outsustain their initial burst but sometimes it happens that the maw is neccessary. You want to build the first component hexdrinker early on, probably after your mythic, and complete the build somewhere later along the game.

Summoner Spells

SUMMONER SPELLS
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FLASH: is an essential summoner. It allows you to close gaps to kill the enemy or to escape from the enemy. There is no debate possible about this summoner spell.

SMITE: Just as , is a non negotiable summoner spell for every jungler. You can not build jungle items without smite so make sure to always take smite.

Abilities

PASSIVE ABILITY

New Destiny

✦ Graves' basic attack fires a cone of 4 bullets which stop on the first unit hit. The first bullet on a target deals 0.7 - 1 total AD (based on level) physical damage, with subsequent bullets dealing a third of that damage per bullet. Structures take 25% reduced damage from Graves' basic attacks.

Graves stores two Shells at any time and expends them when he basic attacks. After using them, Graves reloads, delaying his next basic attack significantly. Graves' reload time is slightly reduced by attack speed, but the time between attacks is greatly reduced by attack speed.

Upon critically striking, Graves fires 6 bullets over a 50% wider cone and deals 40% bonus physical damage (60% with Infinity Edge).

End Of The Line

✦ fires a narrow missile, dealing 45 / 60 / 75 / 90 / 105 (+0.8 per bonus attack damage) physical damage in a line. After 2 seconds, the line detonates, dealing 85 / 120 / 155 / 190 / 225 (+0.4 / 0.7 / 1.0 / 1.3 / 1.6 per bonus attack damage) physical damage in a 'T' shape from where Graves fired it.

If End of the Line strikes a wall, it detonates after 0.25 seconds.

Smoke Screen

✦ fires a smoke canister at the target area, dealing 60 / 110 / 160 / 210 / 260 (+60% of ability power) magic damage upon landing and creating a cloud of smoke 675 units wide for 4 seconds. Enemies inside the smoke cloud will be slowed by 50% and will have their vision reduced to only what is inside the smoke cloud. The slow lasts for 0.5 seconds after the target leaves the cloud.

Quickdraw

✦ dashes forward, resetting his basic attack timer and refilling one shell. Graves also gains 6 / 9 / 12 / 15 / 18 armor for 4 seconds, stacking up to 8 times. Dashing towards an enemy champion grants 2 stacks. Damaging non-minions refreshes the duration of this buff. 's cooldown is reduced by 0.5 seconds every time Graves hits an enemy with a bullet.

Collateral Damage

✦ fires an explosive shell in a straight line, dealing 250 / 400 / 550 (+1.5 per bonus attack damage) physical damage to the first target it hits. After hitting a champion or reaching the end of its range, the shell explodes dealing 200 / 320 / 440 (+1.2 per bonus attack damage) physical damage in a cone behind the target.

Graves recoils 300 units upon firing.

Jungle Pathing

Blue Start

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This is a standard full clear starting from the blue buff. It is possible to invade the enemy jungle instantly after blue buff by E'ing over the dragon/baron pit wall. This way you avoid most wards and you are in the position to either split the map, or deny enemy a lot of camps. Make sure you are able to do this and don't blindly do it. If not, this full clear path is safer and more reliable.

Red Start

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This is a standard full clear starting from the red buff. It is possible to invade the enemy jungle instantly after blue buff by E'ing over the dragon/baron pit wall. This way you avoid most wards and you are in the position to either split the map, or deny enemy a lot of camps. Make sure you are able to do this and don't blindly do it. If not, this full clear path is safer and more reliable. With the red buff yo are stronger in 1v1's so looking for the enemy jungler lvl 2 with the invade is more efficient than it is with a blue buff.

Teamfighting & Lategame

Teamfighting & Late game with Graves
Teamfighting as is pretty straight forward. As Graves you want to fight front to back. Shred the tanks and play upfront. Don't play too far up because you don't want to find yourself alone into 5 enemies. Shred the tanks while dishing out steady dps to win the fight.

Also, as you want to look for potential oneshots on squishies. Look for flanks. When a teamfight is breaking out and you can find a flank angle on enemy ADC/Midlaner and burst them dead, you disable the enemy their dps and will win the fight.

It really depends on the situation and how things are looking. Depending on comps you decide to fight front to back or go for assassinations.

You need to keep your eyes on the map and be wary of potential flanks from the enemy. Ultimately, you need to be looking for good vision around important objectives such as and the in the late game. It is also possible to let the enemy start these objectives and you then fight them at the entrance of the pit forcing them to take damage from both sides inside a small area. Inside the pit you can easily damage them and keep them trapped.

In the late game you should be huge and farmed up. Don't be afraid to fight teamfights. At this point of the game you are supposed to be huge. Almost unkillable and insanely deathly as due to the extreme healing. Make sure to keep your E stacked in these fights. You don't want to drop your E stacks because in the late game, this means u will lose out on a lot of armor in a fight.